renegade craft fair - chicago

i'm a little behind on posting about this, but better late than never, right?

the hubby and i took a trip down to chicago for the weekend....without the boys! it served as our anniversary get-away, but my main objective was going to the renegade craft fair. i had never been there before, but had heard many, many, many amazing things about it and had always wanted to go. unfortunately for us, the weather was not being very cooperative. over the 2 days we were there, chicago reportedly got 9" of rain. yeah. fun. i treked through booth after booth in the rain. many people's goods were just soaked with water. so sad. and nobody had power. this was not only unfortunate for them, but unfortunate for people like myself who couldn't see anything past 7:30 at night. i missed approximately the last 1/4 of the booths because it was just too dark to see anything. i tried to collect as many business cards as i could of those last booths so that i could visit them online to make up for it.

i had been saving up my money for a long time in anticipation of going to the fair. here are the goodies i managed to snag before it got too dark. please go easy on the photos as i'm obviously just learning with the new camera!


my first purchase are these adorable little earrings from sprout jewelry. i needed a pair of everyday-go-with-every-outfit kind of earrings. these fit the bill perfectly.....and at only $15, they hardly cut into my budget!


here's an adorable print i picked up from kitschy hippo. i just love the girl's dress and couldn't pass her up. i also love how the door has a little sign that says: "whiskey"!


i am completely in love with this next print. actually i was in love with pretty much every piece of art that johanna wright had at the show. it was so hard to pick just one. johanna also has a children's book coming out this spring entitled "the secret circus" that we're definitely going to be getting for the boys. i cannot wait to see all the artwork in it!


of course i had to pick up something for the boys while we were there. unfortunately i cannot find the business card for this adorable, precious, cuter-than-pie tie that we picked up. the gals were from minneapolis and super nice. we chatted with them for awhile and i'm super sad that i can't find their information to post. if anyone knows who's work this is, please let me know! i was super tempted to get 2 ties - one for each boy - but in the end, chose only one for them to share.



and the créme de la créme of my purchases.....an absolutely beautifully crafted purse from amber jensen, owner of sketchbook. it turns out i bought her favorite. she said it was going to be hers if nobody had purchased it at the fair. luckily it came home with me! i just love the whole grey/yellow combo that's been so popular lately. it was by far my most expensive purchase and i fought with myself over whether or not to buy it, but in the end i'm so glad i did!